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Grey Cup memories: Amid filth, a thrilling day at the Argos Mud Bowl

Prior to a slushy 1950 Argos-Winnipeg game, 13-year-old Tom Minhinnick wandered near the Argos bench and found himself enlisted as a ball cleaner.

The Grey Cup game of 1950, won by the Argos 13-0 over Winnipeg, became known as the Mud Bowl. While plowing snow off the field’s surface the previous day, crews had inadvertently torn up much of its top soil. And when torrential rains hit Toronto on Grey Cup Saturday, the field had been primed to produce a quagmire.
(Harold Barkley / Toronto Star file photo)

Tom Minhinnick, who watched the 1950 Mud Bowl, wiped down balls caked in mud as well as players after he sneaked onto the Argo sidelines during their pre-game warm-up. (Supplied Photo)

By Joseph HallSports Reporter

Mon., Nov. 19, 2012

Tom Minhinnick’s filthy, fabulous and finest Grey Cup memory began with an out of the blue order:

“Here kid, clean this ball off.”

The setting was the sidelines of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium, where a young Minhinnick had wandered prior to that Argos-Winnipeg game in 1950.

And the just-turned 13-year-old, who’d found himself beside the Toronto bench during the team’s warm-up, was peremptorily enlisted as the Argo’s “Mud Bowl” ball boy.

“They wouldn’t play a game in those conditions today,” Minhinnick says of the bayou-like field he stood by some 62 years ago.

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“The mud was right over the top of their boots.”

The game itself — perhaps the sloppiest Grey Cup ever played in every sense — ended up in a 13-0 Argo victory.

But the Mud Bowl conditions had been caused by a confluence of careless grooming and bad weather just prior to the tilt.

While plowing snow off the field’s surface the previous day, crews had inadvertently torn up much of its top soil.

And when torrential rains hit Toronto on Grey Cup Saturday, the field had been primed to produce a quagmire.

Minhinnick’s father had been given a single ticket to the game by a boss at his Toronto hardware firm. And dad had passed it on to his Argo-loving son.

“And the ticket was a good ticket, it was just to the left of the Argonaut bench, probably within the first 10 rows,” Minhinnick, now 75, recalls.

“And I was there very early and they were out doing their warm ups, so I just got up and walked down the isle … I just sort of slid under the rail and walked to the Argonaut bench.”

That’s when the bog-coated balls started coming in. And that’s when Minhinnick’s mud-venture began.

“The players are out there trying to warm up, but every time that a ball was dropped, it had to be brought to the sideline and cleaned,” he recalls.

“And a linesman came over and shoved a ball in my stomach and told me to wipe it off.”

Minhinnick — who went on to a career as an insurance broker — dutifully did as told; walking over to the “mile-high pile” of white towels the team had assembled benchside.

“By the time I got back, he (the linesman) was there with another one,” he says.

“And for the whole game I stood at the end of the Argonaut bench — nobody ever questioned who I was or why I was there — and cleaned the balls off.”

That’s not all he cleaned off. Soon the players themselves were smeared in the slop, and formed a steady line to the towel-wielding teenager.

“Every time they got tackled they had to take their off their helmets and drain them and I’d wipe their face, or I’d wipe their helmet,” Minhinnick says.

“When they were sitting down I would bring them a towel. And I continually had balls shoved into my stomach by linesmen and referees to clean.”

By game’s end, Minhinnick himself, who had come clad in his favourite white jacket and sneakers, was as crud-covered as any of the players.

“When my father picked me up in the car out front of that gate, I was mud from my shoulders right down to my toes,” he recalls.

“Even my running shoes were full. He didn’t want me to sit in the front seat. But it was a hell of a thrill for me.”

We want your Grey Cup memories. Send them to greycup@thestar.ca or better yet, go to our Facebook page at Facebook.com/GreyCupMemories. We want a memory for every year the Cup has been handed out. We’ll also run one a day in the newspaper, counting down to the biggest game of the year on Nov. 25.

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